Tuesday, June 20, 2017

A Review of "Me and My Family Tree" by Joan Sweeney

As a mother with a preschooler and a teenager, one of my dreams is to get both of my children into genealogy. Alas, the teenager isn't interested. Maybe someday...

So for now I'm hoping to capitalize on the preschooler's curiosity and natural passion for learning by reading many books about family trees from the library. One book they did not have, but suggested, is Me and My Family Tree by Joan Sweeney.

I purchased it on Amazon and it is such a fun book. It makes it very easy for children to understand their relatives, by taking the family tree one generation and one (or two) family members at a time. it explains very simply that an aunt is your mother or father's sister, for example. Throughout the book, the main character puts together her own family tree as she explains it and then we see her finished tree at the end.

The last page has a family tree that children can add photos to, but I did not want to alter the book in any way. However after hearing the story, my daughter really wanted to create a family tree. So I guess that means my nefarious plan worked!

We went to the store for an 11 x 17 poster board, printed out photos of family members, drew a tree, and then added people one at a time:

We do have to add mine and my husband's fathers - we don't have digital photos of them, so I need to photocopy some older photographs of them at the library. But there you have it. My preschooler was excited to create a family tree after reading Me and My Family Tree, and has a better understanding of who everyone in it is.

About Me

Wendy is a Pagan city hippie living in the country. She is also a genealogist, writer, and gamer. Her alter-ego is a bestselling romance author.

A college town New Englander
turned one-horse town Nebraskan, she raises a cup of Dunkies to life
among cornfields and coyotes. She is still pleasantly surprised that
amber waves of grain exist, and has declared the Midwestern prairies
"wicked cool."

The Rogue Genealogist

This site is a member of

Welcome!

About Me

Wendy is a Pagan city hippie living in the country. She is also a genealogist, writer, and gamer. Her alter-ego is a bestselling romance author.

A college town New Englander
turned one-horse town Nebraskan, she raises a cup of Dunkies to life
among cornfields and coyotes. She is still pleasantly surprised that
amber waves of grain exist, and has declared the Midwestern prairies
"wicked cool."